Stuttgart Mayor Marianne Maynard will be applying for grant money to help with renovation construction of the Stuttgart Police Department, district court and 9-1-1 dispatch building after Tuesday night’s Stuttgart City Council meeting.

The council unanimously approved the mayor to apply for the GIF Funded Community Enhancement Grant from the Arkansas Rural Development Commission. According to the proposed resolution, the city is requesting $150,000.

"It's been years since anything's been done," Stuttgart Police Department Assistant Chief Steven Bobo told the Daily Leader in an earlier interview. "There's a lot of wasted space that we are going to try to make use of."

The "wasted space" includes jail cells that only house inmates for hours at maximum until they are transported to the Arkansas County Detention Center in DeWitt.

The 514 S. Main St. building is the former Stuttgart City Hall that housed the mayor's office along with the police and fire departments. The location originally housed a one-story fire station built in 1915 with a second story added in 1929. The fire station was enlarged once again to join the then-new city hall in 1958.

Bobo said the section that housed the former fire department still has remnants from when horses were used to pull the fire trucks. He hopes to save some aspects of the building for its historical value. Both the police and district court personnel presently use it.

Maynard said the building is the only city building left to receive an upgrade.

Maynard said the city has $800,000 to work with. The funding is part of the $1,725,000 the police department received after Stuttgart voters approved an improvement bond in February 2012.

In other business:

• The Board of Trustees of the Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie received approval for new members. The new members include Jim Craig for a one-year term, Butch Calhoun for a three-year term, Ty Davis for a three-year term and Tiffany Rogers for a two-year term. The remainder of the Board includes Lori Dabbs on a three-year term, Ray Sweetin on a one-year term, David Jessup on a one-year term, Garland Derden on a one-year term, Chuck Seidenschwarz on a three-year term and Kyle Stovesand on a two-year term.

• The council also approved new members nominated by the Stuttgart Advertising and Promotion Commission. The new members include Mital Patel to a one-year term, Melanie Baden in the at-large position for a four-year term and C.K. Patel to a two-year term.